Doyel: No choice for IU: Fire Sampson -- now
Kelvin Sampson is now coaching for his career.
There's no other way to put it.
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| If Eric Gordon and crew can make a Final Four run, Sampson just might stay at IU. (US Presswire) |
Yes, I wrote Big Ten title and Final Four appearance.
Those are the lone things that can (perhaps) save Sampson.
Anything less won't do it because anything less will constitute an on-the-court disappointment that -- when paired with this off-the-court embarrassment -- would almost certainly lead to Sampson's demise. So winning big is his only chance. And it appears Indiana is willing to take the wait-and-see-how-the-games-go approach because why else would the school be asking for more time when it's been four months since most of these allegations initially surfaced?
"The key to this is that these are allegations," IU spokesman Larry McIntyre told the Indianapolis Star on Wednesday. "The document is titled 'allegations' and that word appears over and over and over again in the document. Allegations are not the same thing as statements of fact. This has to be adjudicated. We fully support the adjudication process. We want to get to the bottom of this."
Now allow me to translate ...
Look. We're in the middle of the season and things are going well. We're 20-4, ranked 13th in the nation and tied in the loss column with Wisconsin for second place in the Big Ten standings. We're gonna lose D.J. White and Eric Gordon after this season, meaning this could be the best it gets for some time. So we're not gonna rush to judgment because rushing to judgment would further disrupt our chances of making the Final Four, and say what you want about Kelvin but he's a damn fine basketball coach who can take us to the Final Four. And did you hear ESPN GameDay is coming to town this weekend? And that we've got a huge game with Michigan State? So again, let's take this nice and slow and we'll revisit it in -- oh, I don't know -- how about April?
Obviously, I'm being cynical.
But when you're around this sport long enough it's hard not to be, and it's not like Indiana is against having a cheater run its program because Sampson was a documented cheater before Indiana even hired him. The school has endured the stench of NCAA violations for nearly two years now, so there's no reason it can't endure another six weeks while trying to ride this Sampson/Gordon/White train to the Final Four in San Antonio. And my guess is that's the way it'll play out unless Indiana is pummeled into submission from a public relations standpoint in the coming days and subsequently forces a resignation because it feels it has no alternative.
For now, though, there is an alternative.
And that alternative is to let Sampson coach while the school, as McIntyre put it, "gets to the bottom of this." If Indiana "gets to the bottom of this" after a Final Four then officials will be tempted to explain how it was just phone calls and just a few little lies and just a big misunderstanding. I mean, how can you fire a guy at his victory parade? But if Indiana "gets to the bottom of this" after a second round loss in the NCAA Tournament then officials will likely decide they didn't like what they saw at the bottom, and won't it be fortunate that there will be a young, clean-cut, straight-laced coach with Midwest roots just looking to make a move from the Pac-10 in Washington State's Tony Bennett?
Either way, this sure is gonna be fun.
So put that phone down and get to coaching hard, Kelvin.
Your career is on the line and winning big is your only chance to save it.
